The Captain Sir Tom Moore Building at Halton Hospital has been named as a Quality Data Provider after successfully completing a national programme of local data audits run by the National Joint Registry (NJR).
The NJR monitors the performance and effectiveness of different types of joint replacement surgery – such as hip, knee, ankle, elbow and shoulder operations – in a bid to improve clinical outcomes for patients and standards of care across hospital trusts.
It launched the ‘NJR Quality Data Provider’ certificate scheme to encourage best practice and offer hospitals a blueprint for reaching high quality standards relating to patient safety.
In order to achieve the award for 2022-23, staff at Warrington and Halton had to achieve six ambitious targets during the NJR’s mandatory national audit period for 2021-22, including increasing engagement and awareness of the importance of quality data collection.
Dr Paul Fitzsimmons, Executive Medical Director at WHH, said: “Improving patient safety and ensuring we are acting upon – and reporting – the most accurate data at all times is of the upmost importance and something that all of our staff at the Trust are committed to and take very seriously.
“We fully support the National Joint Registry’s work in facilitating improvement in clinical outcomes and governance for the benefit of joint replacement patients, and we’re delighted to be awarded as an NJR Quality Data Provider. It is a real achievement for our staff to be recognised for the work they do in delivering outstanding care.”
The NJR Data Quality Audit compares the number of joint replacement procedures submitted to the registry to the number carried out and recorded in the local hospital Patient Administration System.
Hospitals are targeted with ensuring that a high level of patients have consented for their details to be included in the registry, as well as providing a timely and appropriate response to any alerts issued by the NJR in relation to potential patient safety concerns.
Tim Wilton, National Joint Registry Medical Director, said: “Congratulations to colleagues at Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals. The Quality Data Provider Award demonstrates the high standards being met towards ensuring compliance with the NJR and is often a reflection of strong departmental efforts to achieve such status.
“As well as being a fundamental driver to inform improved quality of care for patients, registry data provides an important source of evidence for regulators, such as the Care Quality Commission, to inform their judgements about services.”
The NJR, which covers England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and Guernsey, is the largest orthopaedic registry in the world and collects information on hip, knee, ankle, elbow and shoulder joint replacement surgery across both the NHS and independent sector. Data collection began in April 2003 and data submission for NHS organisations was made mandatory from April 2011.
